Staff take part in Patient Safety Week

Last updated 25-Nov-10 17:54

Staff at Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals marked National Patient Safety Week across both sites last week with a series of activities that worked towards building strong safety leadership throughout all areas of the service.

The activities used included the promotion of SBAR, or Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation. This is a set way of communicating important information by telephone that ensures no vital details are missed. It was originally developed by the US Navy, but has now found a use in healthcare.

Staff were also given new tools for accurate and timely observations of patients' charts, and there were walkrounds of clinical areas by senior staff taking place all throughout the week.

Averil Dongworth, Chief Executive, took part in the walkround of Juniper Ward at Barnet Hospital. She said: "The staff are doing a great job of keeping up to date with all the latest research and techniques on how to keep patients safe whilst under their care. It's always encouraging to see how willing they are to embrace national events such as these and make them part of their everyday working life, every week of the year."